Civil Society and Global Democracy: An Assessment

Abstract

Civil society actors are increasingly seen as holding the promise of a democratization of global governance. Rejecting confederal and federal blueprints for global democracy, a number of theorists in recent years have advanced models for how to democratize existing institutional arrangements through the involvement of civil society actors. In this chapter, we assess the empirical viability of this normative vision, varyingly referred to as global stakeholder democracy, transnational democracy, and democratic polycentrism. This chapter thereby seeks to advance a new agenda in research on global democracy, informed by the ambition to explore the empirical preconditions of alternative theoretical models. We conclude that existing procedures and practices in global governance fall short of fulfilling the normative proposals in the vision of democratic polycentrism, but may qualify as a step in a long-term process of democratization toward this vision.